They asked Tony Kornheiser on his local radio show about it this morning, when he was talking to the PTI producer. He still thought a Dale Jr win would have been a bigger feel-good story. I don't know about that - the Wood Brothers had a far longer drought than Dale Jr has. Maybe the only other bigger feel-good would have been the 43 winning for the first time since the late 90s. (Think Bobby Hamilton got the last 43 win? or was it John Andretti in 99? It was at Martinsville, that much I remember)

Kind of fitting that Bayne learned from Bowyer's mistake on Saturday - Bowyer started to go up to block, then came back down. Had he stayed in front of Stewart, Bowyer wins the NW race. Bayne did this in reverse - his pusher got up just high enough to allow Edwards to edge under, but Bayne realized it soon enough to come down in front of Edwards. And he did it sufficiently soon enough that Edwards couldn't just dump him for the win (which I am sure Edwards would have had he had the chance). On that final restart, I thought it was going to be Tony Stewart & Mark Martin, but they dropped to the back like lead. The 14/88 when paired during the race had been strong in the bottom lane, but not so much so in the higher lanes. And David Ragan needs to talk to Rusty Wallace, the last leader penalized for jumping the start on a late restart. (Was at Martinsville, well before the double-file ones of today - 97 or 98?)

And how about the insanity of each of the three winners not being the point-leaders coming out of Daytona, due the new declare a series rule. From what I understand, NASCAR will let Bayne switch to running Cup points for the rest of the season, but they won't award him the winner's points from the 500. He can be eligible for the chase wild-cards if races 2-26 get him into the top 20, in that the win will count. And I see the Wood Brothers doing everything possible to run the kid for Rookie of Year now instead of the 17-18 races that they had planned. As of late last night, they had already added Martinsville to their schedule. And Ford isn't going to let the kid go anytime soon, like they let Gordon get away...

Should be a good season - and on to Phoenix, where for once there isn't a month gap in the Truck series coming out of Daytona.

DMcGrew wrote:I'm going out on a limb and predicting a Dale Jr victory. He's always been pretty good at Phoenix and Steve Letarte has set up some good cars for Gordon there the past couple years.

Letarte-Gordon finished 2nd at the first Phoenix last year, and 3rd at Vegas, and Jr-Eury finished 2nd at Las Vegas in 08 (race Edwards was penalized for an illegal car, but the win stood). And Letarte-Gordon had a slew of 2nd place finishes in 2009 - California, Atlanta, Michigan, New Hampshire, Chicago, Michigan, Kansas, California,

All Jr-McGrew had to speak of was last year's 2nd in the 500... I think the 2nd @ Talladega in 09 was still with Eury (the Edwards-Keselowski incident finish), and they had a 2nd at Martinsville in the fall of 2008.

I still have the 2008 Michigan fuel-mileage race on my DVR as there has been nothing newer to keep, just like the game 7 of the 09 SCF is still on there, as is XLIII.

I want to believe. But the team has to prove it to me. I know the Driver can do it. I know the Team can do it. I just don't know if the Driver/Team can finish a race yet or not until they prove it to me. Eury/Jr combo had a hard time finishing races. Jr's run of success dried up when Eury Sr retired from being crew chief. Also coincided with the maturation of the 48 team, which has spanked most everyone's rear end the last 6 years or so.

(Still hard to believe it's been 10 years gone... watched Speed's "The 10" tonight - their version of a top 10 countdown show - this one was Earnhardt moments. From the pass in the grass, to the plate-wreck where he flipped over, got back out of the ambulance, and finished the race. (The first one of these they did was the 10 best Daytona 500s)